Show and Tell

Under pressure, Ferraro passes a vital test

The anxiety was high.
The suburban living room was still. The press conference finally
flickered on the television set, live from New York.
If Geraldine Ferraro was going to humiliate herself, and doom the
Democrats' chances, at least Walter Mondale would be able to witness
the dreadful spectacle at home, in Minnesota, alone except for his wife
Joan and a couple of aides.

Ferraro sat before a thicket of microphones, three dozen TV cameras and
200 insistent reporters in a hotel ballroom near Kennedy Airport, ready...